UCF's Blake Bortles could be best college QB produced by area high school

UCF's Bortles is one of five area QBs established at the D-I level

October 23, 2013|Buddy Collings, INSIDE HIGH SCHOOLS

Blake Bortles has won at Penn State and Louisville as the quarterback of a nationally ranked UCF team pointed squarely at a BCS bowl.

He has pundits praising his game, and pro draft scouts eyeballing his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame.

And he could be the greatest college QB greater Orlando has produced.

A region that has sent the likes of Deacon Jones, Warren Sapp and Brandon Marshall to college and pro stardom in every other position group has cultivated very few passers who had success at major colleges, much less the NFL.

But we're in our golden era for QBs. Five are Division I regulars as underclassmen, counting Hagerty's JeffDriskel, who was Florida's starter until sustaining a season-ending broken leg in the Gators' third game.

Iowa State sophomore Sam Richardson (Winter Park) got off to a terrific start for a struggling squad until an ankle injury slowed his pace.

Northwestern junior Trevor Siemian (Olympia) is over 1,000 yards passing for the second time and leads the Big Ten at 14.28 yards per completion.

Paxton Lynch (Deltona Trinity) is the promising redshirt freshman Memphis is rebuilding around. He has thrown for 1,193 yards.

Bortles is the best of all, and who saw that coming when he finished his senior season at Oviedo with three D-I scholarship offers and second-team All-Seminole County status behind Driskel?

Bortles has said he plays with a chip on his shoulder, and there is a big passing arm attached. He has mastered the intricacies of the college game, a skill that previously eluded so many high-school standouts.

As a junior, he is following the trajectory of the guy who proved to be the area's only elite NFL QB. Like Bortles, Jeff Blake was an underrated prospect who missed his junior season for Seminole because of an auto accident. He became an East Carolina Hall of Famer and a 13-year pro.

Blake finished seventh in the 1991 Heisman Trophy race after throwing for 3,073 yards and leading ECU to an 11-1 season and top-10 national ranking. He continued to beat the odds as a 6-foot-1 pro.

After getting cut by the New York Jets following two years as an NFL backup, Blake joined the Cincinnati Bengals and went from third string to stardom. He was a Pro Bowler in 1995, when he threw for 3,822 yards and 28 TDs as the Bengals' beloved "Shake-and-Bake Blake".

Sanford's son totaled 100 starts, over 21,000 yards and 134 TD passes as a pro.

Only time will tell whether Bortles can match that kind of NFL success, but he already has exceeded Blake's college career yardage total (5,133) and is on pace to be the first Sentinel coverage-area grad to throw for 10,000 yards in major-college football.

UCF arguably has gotten more mileage out of area quarterbacks than the rest of the country combined. Mike Cullison (Evans) was the first Knights QB. Darin Slack (Lake Howell) and Dana Thyhsen (DeLand) were 1980s standouts in UCF's Division II days. Steven Moffett (Winter Park) is fifth in school history with 6,199 passing yards, and Kyle Israel (Orlando University) started in 2006 and 2007.

Extra points

Two standout QBs who weren't prototype passers are doing fine at the next level. Apopka's 5-8 Jeremy Gallon has flourished as a Michigan receiver. He broke Big Ten records with 14 catches for 369 yards and two TDs in last week's 63-47 victory against Indiana. Craig Candeto, who excelled as an option QB for DeLand and Navy, is a fighter pilot turned college coach. He is in his first season as a head coach at D-II Capital University of Ohio. . . .

Hollywood Chaminade (0-6) can go winless and make the playoffs, because there is only one other team in Class 3A, District 8. That's the problem with eight classes. Every district should have a minimum five teams, which means one fewer classification.